Subtle
by GoddessOfCourage
Summary: A Stranded woman decides that she doesn't want to be an outcast any longer, and instead joins the COG. Follow Riley Santiago in her comic misadventures as she searches for acceptance and maybe accidentally stumbles upon love! Rated T for language and gore


**Hey! So if you couldn't tell, this is my first story here on ! Hope you enjoy it!**

**No flames please, constructive criticism appreciated!**

**Warning! May contain anything ranging from Mary Sues, OOCness, and of course plain stupidity!  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Gears of War, only Riley and, well, the other things that weren't in the games!

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"That wire doesn't go there."

Sigma squad could feel the tension building between the two soldiers. Both of them were the most gifted engineers that any of the rest of the squad had ever met, but their personalities were so contrasting that they butted heads often.

"I know what I'm doing. Quit nagging."

"Nagging? I'm simply stating a fact."

"You're nagging."

"Am n-"

_BANG_.

"Told you that wire didn't go there," stated the woman, known to her companions as Riley or Ri, giving a smug look to the flustered blond man known as Baird.

"You were distracting me!" he accused. The rest of Sigma squad groaned quietly.

"When are they going to quit fighting and jump each others' bones?" whispered Tanner to Jakob, who raised his eyes heavenward. Everyone (except Riley, of course) could tell that Baird was hot on Ri. They had no idea what her feelings were for him, but they assumed she felt the same. It was hard to tell though, since she immersed herself in her tinkering constantly. She may have been a small woman – only about half the size of her male counterparts – but what she lacked in physique, she well made up for in brain power.

"Alright you two, knock it off," said Sergeant Arrowen, knowing that the verbal bout was leading up to a full out brawl – one that Baird would undoubtedly win, unless it went to a grapple. Baird may have been a bit smaller than the rest of the squad, but he was still bigger and stronger than Riley.

Believe it or not, Riley and Baird could make a good team – when they put their minds to it. Which was rarely.

"Yes sir," grumbled the two Gears crossly, refusing to look at one another.

"Oh, for goodness sake," erupted Derrick, making everyone jump slightly. "Will you just fix the dang Centaur so we can get our behinds out of this horrible place? I'm cold!"

And it _was_ cold; In fact, it had been snowing pretty heavily for the past couple of days.

"Don't talk to my baby that way!" shouted Riley protectively. Everybody stared at her with a mixture of confusion and… well… just confusion.

"What?" ventured Baird, growing increasingly uncomfortable. Had she just stuck up for him?

Riley snorted.

"In your dreams, blondie. I was talking about the tank."

"Oh, right," he said, all too quickly.

"Are we there yet?" muttered Tanner, crossing his arms over his chest in a bored manner.

"There we go! All done!"

"_Finally_," groaned Tanner, being the first one to jump into the tank.

"Shotgun!" Derrick called gleefully, climbing in after him.

"After you," said Baird to Riley in a mock-polite voice as Jakob climbed in after Derrick. She raised an eyebrow.

How do I know he's not just planning to look at my ass? she wondered to herself. Shrugging, she followed Jakob into the tank.

"Get your ass out of that seat, Tanner," she shouted. "I'm driving."

"Women," muttered Tanner, only to receive a sharp blow to the side of his head.

Outside of the tank, Sergeant Arrowen and Baird shared a look.

"You two had better get your asses in here or I'm leaving without you!"

"Yeah Sarge, let's go!"

"They're lucky I'm not one of those cranky old higher ups," chuckled Sarge, before climbing into the tank. Baird stood there for a moment, gathering his thoughts.

"You gonna stand there and pick flowers all day or are you gonna hop in?"

Baird snapped back to attention, shaking his head.

"Coming," he said, and was the last person to enter the tank.

"Yo, I thought you said you were gonna leave him?" chimed in Tanner, earning a non-amused look from Baird.

"I would, but Sarge would have made me go back and pick him up anyways. And that's a waste of gas."

Sure, that's what she said, but the underlying statement was:

I'd never leave one of my comrades behind, no matter what I say.

"Glad to know you care so much about me." Baird rolled his eyes.

"Any time, blondie. Any time."

* * *

"Hey look, Ragtag is home."

Riley rolled her eyes. The other Gears had acquired the habit of calling them the 'Ragtag squad'. Probably because they were the strangest group of people ever to be teamed up.

"What took you so long, eh?"

"Blondie here was trying – and failing – to fix the Centaur," explained Riley, rolling her eyes yet again.

"Aw, he was just showing off," said one of the Gears, earning laughter from everyone else. Except Baird.

"Yo, just shut the hell up man," he warned, scowling at the Gear.

"Hey, whose turn is it to shovel the drive?" shouted one of the other Gears, turning everyone's attention away from Baird. "They'd better do it quick before it freezes over and Boss-man is on our asses."

Every single person in that room happened to glance out the window at that moment and shivered simultaneously. The near-blizzard had settled to the occasional flake here and there, but it was still below freezing with no sunshine and merciless winds.

Shoveling the drive was the bane of every Gear's existence. It was cold, wet, and altogether exhausting.

"Isn't it Ri's turn?" shouted an anonymous voice (Riley never figured out who it belonged to), and a chorus of agreements roused around the room.

"I'm going to freeze to death, and it's going to be all your guys' fault," she stated, already wrapping herself in a thick scarf and slipping on padded gloves.

"Tough luck, babe," said Derrick. Nobody took anything of it – he said things like that all the time.

"If I don't come back in an hour, I'm probably dead!" she exclaimed, grabbing the snow shovel as she walked through the doorway.

"Fare thee well!" was the reply as the door swung shut, trapping her in the barren land of ice.

* * *

"Maybe someone should help her."

Everyone glanced towards the source of the disturbance, one of the rooks who was looking out of the window quietly.

"Why's that?" questioned Sarge in an amused tone.

"Well… she's kinda small and…"

"Are you volunteering, soldier?"

"N-no sir. I was just saying that she might get cold and all…"

"Yeah, she is a scrawny little girl," chimed in Tanner.

"Maybe Baird could share some of his heat with her," shouted someone. The room exploded into laughter.

"You want me to go over there and-"

"Cool it, Baird," said Sarge sternly, giving him a look.

"I don't think he can, sir!" roared the other Gears, making Baird slam his head onto the table.

"All _right_, I'll _go_ already!" he exclaimed, picking up the second shovel as he made his way outside. "If not just to get away from _you_ bastards!"

He found Riley outside, trembling pretty badly with the scarf pulled up over her nose and her goggles pulled down over her eyes, shielding them from the bitter wind. Baird did the same as he walked up next to her, making his presence known by tapping her on the shoulder.

"What are you doing out here!?" she shouted over the howling of the wind, though Baird could barely make it out through her scarf. He held up the shovel in response.

"They were annoying me, so I came out here!" he shouted back. Riley shrugged. With two people, they could get the work done faster and get back inside to the warmth that much sooner.

About ten minutes into their work, the wind died down to a gentle (yet still very cold) breeze, and Riley paused momentarily to remove the goggles from over her eyes.

"Well isn't it our lucky day?" she said, mostly to herself.

"Hopefully it stays this way," answered Baird. She glanced over at him, noticing that he had paused for the moment as well. Humming quietly, she crouched down close to the snow and gathered some in her hands, forming the cold, wet lump into a roughly spherical shape.

Baird was caught by surprise as said lump connected sharply with the side of his head, splattering his face and shoulder with cold wetness. Scowling, he turned to see Riley stifling her giggling behind her glove.

She thinks that's funny, does she? he thought, annoyed, and began shoveling once more.

"Baird. Come on. It's just snow. Bai-"

_WHUP!_

In case you were wondering, that whupping noise came from a shovel full of snow connecting roughly with the small form of Riley, knocking her back onto her ass. She stared incredulously at him with a slightly open mouth, simply sitting in the snow.

"Come on Riley, it's just snow," he teased, in a high pitched voice that she assumed was meant to mimic her own.

Her mouth opened and closed quite a few times before her vocal chords decided to start working once again, but by that point, she had forgotten what she was going to say.

Instead she stood from the ground, picked up her own shovel, and returned the favor.

But instead of hitting Baird (who dodged), the snow came in full contact with the poor, unsuspecting Gear standing behind him.

Riley's hand darted up to cover her mouth.

"Oops."

"I come out to help," said the Gear at length, slowly brushing off the wet mass, "and this is the thanks I get?"

"Sorry Jack-Jack!" giggled Riley, using her strange pet name for the rook, Jakob. Next thing she knew, a weird sensation that was both freezing and burning erupted across the bridge of her nose, and she wiped away the offending snow only to see Jakob smiling triumphantly at her.

"Jakob, how could you?" she exclaimed in a mock horrified tone, placing both hands on her cheeks.

"Very easily," Baird answered for the 19-year-old, already forming a snowball in his hands.

"Damn it Baird, don't you dare!" she warned.

"You started it," he said, before lobbing the ball at her. It hit her in her left temple, splattering snow across her forehead.

"Augh!" she cried, wiping it off hastily. "I'm already soaked!"

"Exactly! No harm done!"

She couldn't help but find the reason in his statement, and was about to say something back but another voice interrupted her.

"I'll help you, Ri!" shouted Derrick, lobbing a snowball at Baird. He ducked a little too late, and it splashed across his face.

"Looks like it's boys versus girls," spat Baird, wiping the snow off sourly.

"And which team is the girls, I wonder?" taunted Riley, chucking a newly formed snowball at Jakob.

"This means war!" he shouted after the ball splattered against his chest.

It could only escalate after that, and of course it did. Everyone in the surrounding buildings were, at some point, to be found in the massive snowball fight that resulted.

In that big of a crowd, mistakes were inevitably made. Snowballs that contained rocks were accidentally thrown, sprained ankles occurred, bloody noses happened.

It wasn't until Riley's fingertips and lips were blue did the biggest mistake of all occur. One that would get them all in deep trouble if not handled correctly.

It happened when Sergeant Major Kruss and two other Gears happened to walk across the courtyard behind Riley the exact moment that Baird threw a snowball at her.

Riley saw the snowball coming and instinctively ducked, not knowing who was behind her. She heard the splatter of snowball against solid object, and (knowing that it had to be a person, because there were no walls or similar obstructions behind her) turned around to face the person. A lump immediately formed in her throat as she saw who it was.

"S-s-sergeant Major, sir," she stuttered, immediately snapping to attention. In her peripheral vision, she noticed all of the other Gears involved in their small war do the same. That's when she noticed the two Gears that were with him – one with the insignia of a Sergeant. That bandanna she would never forget, and the other person's face instantly struck a chord in her memory.

Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago. She had met them a couple years back, and saved Dom's life by giving up some of her blood for a transfusion.

Back when she was a Stranded. She had no idea if they would recognize her now, but by the look on their faces, she guessed that they hadn't.

"What is this, soldier?" barked the Sergeant Major.

"A snowball fight, sir," Riley answered, realizing that she was soaking wet and trembling from head to toe from the cold.

"A snowball fight, you say?"

"Yes sir."

"And which of you is the one that hit me, soldier?"

Riley sensed Baird, who was standing behind her, tense up at the question. He had been the one to hit the Sergeant Major. She itched to say it outright, but something was stopping her.

"It was me, sir," she blurted out. Dom and Marcus looked slightly surprised – so they knew that it hadn't been her. Of course it couldn't have been her; she'd had her back turned.

"You, soldier?"

"Yes sir."

"You're telling me that you, a private, are the one that threw a projectile at me, a Sergeant Major?"

Jeez, he made it sound like high treason.

"No sir."

"Then what are you saying, soldier?"

"Sir. I'm saying that I instigated the snowball fight, so I therefore take responsibility for any outcomes, sir."

"Is that so?"

"Yes sir."

"Then I suppose you'd better show up for kitchen duty for the rest of the week then, private."

Riley felt herself deflate under the Sergeant Major's gaze, returning his look meekly.

"Yes sir."

"You'd better go dry off before you catch a cold," said Marcus in a rather soft way, yet still made it sound like an order.

"Yes sir."

And with that, the three men left. Riley stood for a moment longer, shivering as she watched them leave.

"Riley," said Derrick, tapping her on the shoulder. "Come on, let's go inside."

"They didn't recognize me," she mumbled to herself, amused.

"_Riley_, let's go," Derrick said again, pulling at her arm.

"Wha- Oh. Yeah. Do you know who that was?" she questioned as they made their way inside.

Derrick gave her an incredulous look.

"Um, yeah, that was the Sergeant Major."

"Not him, smartass. The Sergeant standing next to him," Riley explained, rolling her eyes.

"There was a Sergeant standing next to him?"

"Marcus Fenix," said Sarge, who had apparently been listening in on their conversation. "A hero from the Pendulum Wars."

"_That_ was Marcus Fenix?!" exclaimed Derrick, aghast.

"You'd better not let him hear you talk about him like that," laughed Riley, shaking her head.

"Hey everybody, guess who's got kitchen duty?!" shouted Baird, while pointing at Riley.

"He's just got it out for me," groaned Riley quietly.

"No, I think there's something else there," Derrick laughed, draping an arm around her shoulders. "You'll figure it out soon enough."

And then he left her to ponder his words. Confused, she slunk away towards her dorm.

The feline companion that had kept her company through her nine years as a Stranded sat in a heap on the small desk, parts strewn out across the wooden surface. It had gotten crushed in one of her encounters with the Locust, and it saddened her to see her mechanical friend in that state.

Sighing, she plopped down in the chair in front of the desk and began working on putting Tobermory back together, a job that she had worked on for the past four months whenever she got the time.

She really wanted to show Toby to Baird – they may fight a lot, but he was an all right man – and Sarge – her best friend in the COG. Riley had resolved not to do so until she had the completed product; including the cloaking ability she had reverse engineered from a broken bot – Timbot, she thought it was.

And she still had a long way to go.

* * *

_THUD_!

Riley felt – and heard – the air leaving her lungs as she sprawled out on the dirty, faded red mat. She was almost instantly in a ready position; propped up by her left elbow, right arm positioned to guard her face and right leg raised, prepared to strike.

"Heh," laughed the smug blonde, confident in his abilities. Baird, the one who had gotten her to the ground, stood over the redhead with a smirk.

"Don't give up, Ri!" shouted Derrick, ever her supporter. She grinned inwardly, being a notoriously stubborn opponent. This wasn't over, unless Baird didn't have the guts to go into a grapple.

"It's over, Riley," he said, that smug look still on his face. Riley raised her eyebrows – an unspoken challenge. The blonde rolled his eyes, letting out an annoyed 'tch'.

"Gra-pple! Gra-pple!" chanted the onlookers. Riley had noticed at one point that her squad, Marcus, Dom, and that ex-thrashball player were all somewhere in the crowd, but she was too focused now to look around for them.

"All right, all right!" he shouted, dropping to his knees next to the redhead. A chorus of cheers went around.

They moved into the starting positions; since Riley had gone down first, she was on her back on the mat, while Baird was on his knees in between her legs, his hands on either side of her head.

"Well isn't this a compromising position?" Ri said jokingly, waiting for Sarge to start the match.

Baird simply rolled his eyes. He seemed to do that a lot.

"Start!" shouted Sergeant Arrowen, and two things happened in the blink of an eye; Baird pushed off of the ground in order to get some distance, but then Riley grabbed onto his wrists and locked her legs around his waist.

He struggled against her grip, but got nowhere. The crowd was silent.

Riley unhooked her legs and started pushing herself away, hooking her right ankle around his hip and placing the arch on her left foot near where his right knee met the floor.

In another split-second move, she released his left arm and gripped the other one with both of her hands, straightening out her back while simultaneously shoving his knee with her left foot and throwing him over her with her right leg. He tumbled off of her, surprised, but didn't have a chance to get anywhere before she was back on top of him, twisting his arm up behind his back as he lie face first on the mat.

"Tap out, blondie," laughed Tanner, taunting him. Baird growled, struggling against her grip. She shoved his arm up further, making him wince.

A couple seconds passed before the blonde grudgingly slapped the mat twice.

"Tap out!" shouted Sarge, and a roar (plus quite a few groans) ripped through the crowd. Derrick lifted Ri off of Baird, engulfing her in a bear hug.

Ri personally didn't see what all of the excitement was about; she had beat lots of guys – most of them at least three times her size – in grapples. She would find out later just how many bets had been placed on that particular match.


End file.
